“Payday Loan” Cap Needed

Senator Noone today welcomed the news that the finance committee are inviting lending agencies to address the finance committee. “I welcome this news, and hope that we can start from here and look a little further to the issue of payday lenders, to the extortionate amounts of interest they charge, and to the idea of an annual capping of these fees. I think this is a way where Government can intervene and help protect consumers from the worst excesses of greed and nastiness in the payday loans sector.

Senator Noone said: “The true scale of the problem is difficult to estimate – infact it’s impossible to say – though we do know that people can be tempted in both good times and not-so-good times by taking out loans they can’t afford, and I believe that we should be working and legislating in order to ensure that these debts for relatively small principal amounts

Senator Noone continued: “We need to get a firm grip on payday loans legislation now, while we still have the opportunity, before firms which operate in Britain such as Wonga start setting up here. We need to enshrine fairness into the system. In this sense, I would welcome the Committee inviting representatives of licensed lending companies could be invited in to speak about some of the issues with high interest lending.

Senator Noone added: “We need to be proactive and responsive on this issue. We have seen in the UK how payday lenders can have crippling consequences on families and communities and, indeed, while they are legitimate, transparent services, they can allow people to end up running into serious arrears with the annual rate of interest sometimes going beyond 1000%. This needs to be dealt with before Christmas, and I would welcome any work the Committee can do on this matter”.